An EFL Readability Index
An EFL Readability Index
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EFL 可读性指数
DOI：
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发表时间：
1997
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通讯作者：
J. D. Brown
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作者：
J. D. Brown
摘要：本研究探讨了可读性及其与英语作为外语（EFL）学生的完形填空成绩之间的关系。从一家美国公共图书馆随机选取了50篇阅读文章，并通过每隔12个单词删除一个的方式将其制成30个空的完形填空文章。研究对象是来自日本18所大学的2298名英语作为外语的学生。每个学生被随机选取完成30个空的完形填空文章中的一篇。因此，完形填空文章之间的任何差异都被假定是由于抽样差异之外的其他原因造成的。结果得到了50篇完形填空文章，其均值作为因变量：英语作为外语的难度（EFL Difficulty）。然后对每篇文章分析两组自变量，以研究它们对英语作为外语的难度预测的准确性：第一组由各种第一语言可读性指标组成（包括弗莱施指数、弗莱施 - 金凯德指数、弗莱指数、冈宁指数、福格指数以及修正的冈宁 - 福格指数）；第二组由文章的可量化语言特征组成（例如，功能词的百分比、每个句子的音节数、每个段落的单词数、文章中单词的频率以及许多其他特征）。相关性、因子和多元回归分析表明，第一语言可读性指标与英语作为外语的难度只有微弱的相关性（23%到30%）。然而，对语言特征的分析表明变量之间存在明显的分组。此外，四个语言特征（每个句子的音节数、文章中其他地方词汇项的平均频率、七个或更多字母的单词百分比以及功能词的百分比）相结合时与英语作为外语的难度有更高的相关性（55%）。这些结果就其对英语作为外语可读性指标发展的影响进行了讨论。
Abstract: This surdy explores readability and its relationship to the cloze passage performance of EFL students. Fifty reading passages were randomly selected from an American public library and made into 30-item cloze passages by deleting every 12th word. Thc subjects were 2298 EFL students from 18 university level institutions in Japan. Each student was randomly selected to take one of the 30-item cloze passages. Any differences between the cloze passages were therefore assumed to be due to other than sampling difierences. The result was a set of 50 cloze passages the means of which sewed as the dependent variable: EFL Difficulty. Each passage was then analyzed for two sets of independent variables chosen to investigate how well they predict the EFL Difficulty: the first set was made up of various first language readability indices (including the Flesch, Flesch-Kincaid, Fry, Gunning, Fog, and modified Gunning-Fog indices); the second set was made up of quantifiable linguistic characteristics of the passages (e.g., the percent of function words number of syllabuses per sentence, number of words per paragraph, frequencies of words in the passages, and nany others). Correlational, factor and multiple-regression analyses indicated that the first language readability indices were only weakly related to EFL Difficulty (23 to 30 percent). However, the analysis of linguistic characteristics indicated clear groupings among the variables. In addition, four of the linguistic characteristics (number of syllables per sentence, the average frequency of lexical items elsewhere in the passage, percent of words with seven or more letters, and percent of function words) when combined were more highly related to EFL Difficulty (55 percent). These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of an EFL readability index.